Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to a method and apparatus for depth-fill algorithm for low-complexity stereo vision.
Description of the Related Art
We address a fundamental limitation of low-complexity stereo vision algorithms which estimate the scene depth from a pair of stereo images. The problem is that of “missing pixels”, or “holes” in the depth image, where the stereo algorithm is unable to establish a point correspondence between the left and right views. This phenomenon is commonly observed in texture-less image regions, wherein local window correlations do not yield well-defined peaks in matching scores. State-of-the-art algorithms tackle this problem by imposing more constraints on the pixel matches such that the depth estimate reflects, for instance, the smoothness of 3D surfaces. Unfortunately, such global considerations increase the computational requirements tremendously, prohibiting the deployment of modern stereo algorithms on low-power embedded processors.